'Creativity Or Artists Have No Connection With What Happens Politically In Different Countries', Says Sidharth Malhotra In Defense Of Fawad Khan

In the wake of Uri attacks and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) outrage, the nation has been divided between the question of whether Pakistani artists and actors should be banned from working in our country or not. While some think that asking the Pakistani artists to leave the country is a reasonable decision, others feel that removing them won’t help resolve the issue.

In fact, many celebrities have come forward to share their opinion on the same and one such actor who has spoken in support of Fawad Khan is Sidharth Malhotra. The two actors shared screen space in the movie ‘Kapoor & Sons’ and when Sidharth was asked about this issue and, in particular, about Fawad Khan, he said “Actors are not cast in Bollywood movies based on their nationality.”

“I feel that creativity or artists or any kind of creative field, be it movie, has no connections with what happens politically in different countries,” he further added stating that this move won’t make any difference to the situation.

Sidharth even called the actors as ‘soft targets’ and felt that it was sad to bring this issue up since the actors are not cast based on their nationality. “We cast them as an individual and as performers, and there are so many other technicians who come from all around the world, in India, to work.” “Not only actors, there are cameramen, artists and there are make-up artists and people…So the world is becoming smaller and smaller and you can’t say yes or no to one particular nationality,” he added.

Despite reports of warnings being issued against Pakistani artists and some organizations threatening them to leave the country, Sidharth’s views on this issue are something worth taking into consideration. He did make a reasonable point that people are not hired as ‘Pakistani artists’, they are hired as individual performers who have no connection with their nation’s politics.